The Aggie Awards - The Best Adventure Games of 2014

Best Story: The Blackwell Epiphany

In The Blackwell Epiphany, Dave Gilbert had the unenviable task not only of telling a story worthy of wrapping up the beloved indie series, but also of tying up threads he’d established years earlier in the four preceding games. He ended up telling two stories in one: a mystery involving souls who are ripped apart before they can cross over, and a high-stakes send-off for the duo who have become like friends these past eight years, resolving questions about Rosa’s family history and Joey’s past in gratifying, permanent ways. The tears flowed, but with those tears came much-needed closure.

The Blackwell games have always focused on a reluctant spirit medium struggling to control her power, accompanied by a spectral sidekick who doesn’t have to take everything so seriously. In Epiphany, Gilbert puts a genius spin on his own convention: Rosa is now powerless to save the dead, while Joey is suddenly – ironically – in mortal danger. When the story hits a mini-climax halfway through, the mystery seems to be solved all too soon… and then the case goes even deeper, with Joey and Rosa directly in the crosshairs. This halfway point is when Epiphany’s story shifts from good to great; it’s when we realize that in Rosa and Joey’s final outing, Dave Gilbert’s giving us all he’s got.

But the driving plot isn’t necessarily what makes this story stand out. The strength lies in how every element – themes, characters, setting, mood – contribute to the overall arc, all of them guiding us toward The End. That ending may have been controversial, but it’s one Gilbert says he envisioned from the beginning. We were headed this way all along, we just didn’t know it yet. And when the credits rolled we felt, if not happy with the outcome, at least fulfilled. From a narrative standpoint, The Blackwell Epiphany is a finale done right, making it the obvious choice for this year’s Best Story award.

Runners-Up:

Broken Sword 5: The Serpent’s Curse

The Wolf Among Us

The Last Door

Valiant Hearts: The Great War

Readers’ Choice: Tesla Effect: A Tex Murphy Adventure

More than fifteen years since the cliffhanger ending of Overseer, Tex finally returned and didn’t disappoint his many fans. Cleverly accounting for the missing years between installments, Tesla Effect once again delivered an ever-escalating sci-fi-comedy-noir yarn in which Tex awakens with a serious head wound and no recent memories. While investigating his conspiratorial attackers and his own troubled past, Tex stumbles across a catastrophic invention that is somehow entwined with tantalizing clues about his long-lost love. Better yet, player choices trigger one of five different bitter-to-sweet endings. Yep, sounds like another winning Tex Murphy tale, all right!

I feel the same DrFrankenstein. I liked Tesla Effect a bit, Tesla Effect probably deserves an award or two, but to give Tesla Effect the Best Setting award is almost ironic. The quality of Tesla Effect’s background art is often shockingly poor.

From what I understand: “Setting” refers to the universe in which the game takes place, and how encapsulating it is in terms of story, relevancy and delivery. Graphic design is probably a more accurate category when talking about “background art”, presentation or graphics, in which case Tesla was not even a runner up.

Excellent awards presentation! Your efforts are much appreciated—both the decision-making and the fun and informative write-ups. I like the inclusion of the Silver Aggies. I thought it was a great year for our genre and this year holds great promise too.

A little question about the extras you write about for Blackwell. Is the bloopers and the deleted scene a part of every version of the game? I have the gog version and haven’t found those two, and they only list wallpaper as extra material… Or maybe I just haven’t been “clicking” around enough

I guess Blackwell Epiphany i s the right game for best adventure ( _guess_ has to do with me playing far from all of the competitors), especially if you consider it a price for the whole Blackwell series. Tesla Effect, altough a decent game -but far from as good as its predecessors - has a ring of fanboy choice to it.

Majsan, the bloopers and deleted scene are accessed in-game (via icons) at the appropriate time if you have the developer commentary turned on (which you can do through the main menu “Options” screen).

Thom-22, thanks very much. The Aggies are always a lot of work, but we hope people have fun with them.

I`m just happy for the results. Epiphany and Tex Murphy totally deserved to be in top here. They were both great but Epiphany was especially epic top quality game! Thanks for the whole Blackwell series Dave!
I`m happy to see that The Wolf Among Us and Broken Sword got prices at some categories too. In my books, they were 3. and 4. best games after Epiphany and Tex.

I’m not at all surprised Tex won a lot of these awards.Tesla Effect was a huge surprise to me on many levels - it’s hard to bring the adventure magic of yore back to life, especially on a shoestring Kickstarter budget, but Tesla Effect 100% pulled it off. It was a grand return of Tex - funny, atmospheric, clearly a labour of love. Puzzle-wise, the final acts of the game were weaker than the preceding one, agreed, but that’s the only complaint I have.

I kind of wish The Journey Down:Chapter 2 got more love however, it was absolutely amazing, yet seems to have flown under everyone’s radar.

By the way, for the next year I would like to suggest a new category - for best make up: Grim Fandango will be up for voting, as well as maybe a new episode of the Journey Down… Maybe also a new category for worst jokes would be a good idea